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| Manning Early Access Program |
Platform Second Life Developing Real-World Applications Nicholas M. Chase and Jason T. Clark MEAP Release: January, 2008 Softbound print: March 2009 (est.) | 475 pages ISBN: 1933988517 |
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Table of Contents, MEAP Chapters & Resources
| Table of Contents | Resources | |
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DESCRIPTION
Second life is a cool new way to interact with people online in a dynamic 3D virtual world. With over 12 million registered users, and over 1 million U.S. dollars spent in Second Life daily, interest in Second Life is exploding. Besides the 3D interactive features, Second Life is designed so that all of the content is created by Second Life users. That means tools exist that not only create virtual buildings, clothing, and cars, but also create real applications for real businesses.
But just as companies discovered that putting up a flashy site wasn't the key to using the web effectively, companies are realizing that taking advantage of virtual worlds like Second Life involves more than putting up a great looking island. The web became indispensable when it became enmeshed with businesses, integrating with business processes in everything from advertising to intranets to web services. Likewise, virtual worlds will become indispensable when businesses use them to create real applications.
Platform Second Life: Developing Real-World Applications shows you how to do that.
This book focuses on the skills needed to build applications that connect real life and Second Life. This includes:
- displaying RSS feeds in-world and creating 3D displays with external data
- controlling access to your virtual presence based on a real-world database
- updating external databases based on what happens in the virtual world
Platform Second Life is aimed at developers building Second Life applications, from casual scripters trying to build a cool tool to enterprise-level coders integrating with their company's legacy systems.
WHAT'S INSIDE:
- Communication between objects
- Sending HTTP requests
- Sending and receiving email
- Bringing in RSS data
- Creating 3D objects based on external data
- Sound and video
- Access control based on LDAP
- Manipulating external SQL databases
- Using voice and gestures
- Using the Registration API
- Using the Webmap API
- Creating bots with libsecondlife
About the Authors
Nicolas Chase is the President of InterSection Unlimited, which provides metaverse development for companies that want to take advantage of virtual worlds such as Second Life. He has written close to a dozen books on web development topics, and has been involved in Web site development for companies such as Lucent Technologies, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Nick has been a high school physics teacher, a low-level radioactive waste facility manager, an online science fiction magazine editor, a multimedia engineer, an Oracle instructor, and the Chief Technology Officer of an interactive communications company. In addition to writing and teaching classes about programming for Second Life, he has written more than 200 articles and tutorials on topics such as XML, web services, Java, PHP, and other emerging technologies. He is still trying to move his wonderful wife and children to that farm with the mutant chickens.
Jason T. Clark is an inventor and software developer for IBM developerWorks, where he develops J2EE web applications, Web 2.0 applications, and supports their development infrastructure. In 2007, Jason became well known at IBM for his expertise and leadership involving several of IBM's virtual worlds initiatives, such as serving as the technical lead for IBM Rational's first ever Second Life RSDC event, and the first IBM developerWorks virtual worlds briefing in Second Life. He is currently the technical lead for the IBM developerWorks Second Life Island, and the online community leader for both the developerWorks Game Development space and the Second Life space. Jason is a member of IBM's Virtual Universe Community and has also managed to file numerous patents on behalf of IBM, covering many emerging virtual world technologies. Jason has also authored several other technical publications for IBM developerWorks. Away from his desk at IBM, Jason is a member of the International Game Developers Association, and is also a freelance mod developer, primarily using the Unreal Engine.
About the Early Access Version
This Early Access version of Platform Second Life enables you to receive new chapters as they are being written. You can also interact with the authors to ask questions, provide feedback and errata, and help shape the final manuscript on the Author Forum
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